The Mech Touch

Of the many parade mech groups that had been forced to confront these warbeasts due to their proximity to the hostile creatures upon their appearance, a part of them rise to the occasion while many others disappointed the new colonial state for many different reasons.

"Just run!"

"I'm not paid to fight against these ridiculous monsters!"

"Davute is an awful place!"

For example, one street that was previously engulfed in pink had become remarkably less colorful.

The mech pilots hired by Sileena Dynamics only fought against the warbeasts for a short amount of time before they realized how outmatched they were. Their pink and feminine commercial mechs might look good on a broadcast, but their relatively fragile frames presented an even poorer defense against the out-of-control beasts than other machines!

The only consistent advantages that these pink-coated machines possessed was that they were faster and nimbler across all mech archetypes.

This enabled the mechs to evade many of the simplistic and telegraphed attacks of many beasts as long as their mech pilots reacted quickly enough.

Unfortunately, none of the mech pilots possessed the training, nerve and willingness to do their duty.

Their company mech pilots weren't particularly awful, but their lack of preparation along with the adverse circumstances caused them to quickly lose heart, especially when many of their colleagues got killed as their mechs got caught by the beasts!

The rout did not happen due to anyone's deliberate actions. The more off-balanced mech pilots simply chose to cut and run by whatever means possible, showing no regard for the teammates they left behind!

"You bastard!"

"He's got the right idea!"

The flight of the first pink mechs quickly started a cascade as the ones that initially remained behind did not want to be left with the burden that others had avoided!

It was at this point that the advantages of the Sileena mechs played a more useful role to the mech pilots for once.

Their superior traversal speeds allowed them to outpace many mechs!

Even if they weren't fast enough, they at least managed to outrace the mechs produced by many other companies, ensuring that others would fall before it was the turn of the pink machines!

"What are you doing?! You led them right to us, you cowards!"

"You'll pay for this, Sileena!"

A lot of complaints flew around as not just the parade mechs fielded by Sileena Dynamics but many other machines made the situation worse by acting in a completely chaotic fashion.

This increased the burden on the mech units that had largely chosen to make their stand and protect the people in the Government District from the ravages of the rampaging beasts.

"Is this what Davute's finest troops amount to? Our colonial state is doomed!"

"Not all of the mech pilots are cowards! Look over there! Those machines are still making a stand!"

Whereas the extremely numerous but incredibly weak commercial mechs of R&R and Sileena Dynamics disappointed everyone who witnessed their abysmal performance, the mechs fielded by Renewal Tech & Design fared considerably better.

For one, their mech pilots did not panic and run around like headless chickens. They showed considerably more professionalism to the point where it became obvious that they had been working together with each other for a long time.

The RT&D machines formed up and coordinated their actions with much less confusion and delay than the other parade groups. The mech pilots obeyed the instructions of their superior officers without fuss and the company headquarters also transmitted the unlock codes that restricted the functionality of the dangerous ranged weapons in a timely manner.

As the initial waves of weaker exobeasts and warbeasts charged towards the RT&D mechs, many of them were either gunned down by concentrated firepower or lost much of their momentum when they collided against the overlapping energy shields projected by multiple melee mechs standing in close formation.

"Ghuuuaaa!"

"Rwoooo!"

"The creatures are pissed! Hit them hard before they can regroup!"

Though the standard mechs of RT&D lost their energy shields at a rapid rate, they nonetheless acquitted themselves well and managed to eliminate the mob of cannon fodder creatures before they did much damage.

Unfortunately, that did not leave them with much power to fend off the most threatening transphasic warbeasts.

These experimental creatures had already torn up a lot of other mechs and easily managed to rip through the conventional energy shields that protected the softer mechs of this new mech company.

It was only now that the downside of piloting energy shield mechs became clear!

"Ahh!"

"Eject faster! Without our shields, the rest of our mech won't last long!"

When the warbeasts tore through a bunch of energy shields with disturbing ease and raked their unnaturally sharp claws through the thin armor plating of the RT&D mechs, the exteriors of the latter parted as if they were made of paper!

In over half of the cases, the cockpits of the mechs in question didn't even have time to eject in time!

Although the surviving mech pilots made sure to keep their hands on the eject button or levers at all time, it ultimately became clear that without equipping transphasic energy shields, the products of RT&D became just as vulnerable to transphasic attacks as their armor-based counterparts.

Nevertheless, the well-trained mech pilots in the service of Renewal Tech & Design tried to hold out as best they could.

"We need backup! We are losing our mechs at a rapid rate."

The RT&D mechs suddenly received a direct transmission on a new communication channel.

"Fear not, brave soldiers. We have heard your pleas. Be ready for a long-ranged precision strike."

"What?! From where?! This is no place to initiate an artillery bombardment!"

"Who said anything about artillery?"

Before the Renewal mech pilots could ask for more, a thin but bright energy beam launched from a distance and curved over the roofs of the government structures until it struck the neck of a resilient warbeast!

The creature's exultant warcry turned into a bloody gurgle as a thin hole had been sliced through its arteries and a part of its windpipe!

Though the creature's resilient regeneration power quickly tried to stem the bleeding, the surrounding RT&D mechs weren't sitting still.

"Attack the neck while the beast is still incapacitated!"

Many different ranged attacks worsened the injuries on the neck, causing the warbeast to choke and bleed to the point where it could no longer resist the melee mechs that quickly delivered the finishing blows!

The expert mech that was responsible for firing the curving energy beam was not done. It fired three more slicing energy beams, each of which possessed enough penetration power to slice through the transphasic hide or scales of the warbeasts that fell victim to these strikes.

Even if the magnitude of the damage was not all that great, just the fact that they were able to create a hole in the defenses of the beasts was enough for the surrounding RT&D mechs to exploit the openings and finish the job.

"Who are you?" The mech captain in the employ of RT&D asked. "You saved our back with those impressive precision strikes."

"We hail from the Larkinson Clan." The authoritative female voice responded. "We appreciate your gratitude, but you can repay us by doing what you can to secure your sector and bring order to the surrounding streets."

"What about the other sectors, ma'am?"

"They are already being handled by us and other reinforcements. It is more important for your unit to hold your positions and hinder any warbeasts from crossing into other streets. Do you understand?"

"Yes, ma'am!"

Legion Commander Casella Ingvar became satisfied with what she heard and saw. She knew she could count on the troops of RT&D to take their latest assignment seriously.

A part of her expansive mind continued to monitor the situation based on the expansive information fed to her expert command mech.

This allowed Casella to take in the circumstances in the other sectors and feed precise targeting data to the Amaranto that was hovering a short distance away from the Minerva.

The expert rifleman mech piloted by Venerable Stark was making good use of the Instrument of Vengeance that had recently fallen out of favor.

Though the older rifle could not match the destructive might of the Instrument of Doom, it was much more controllable, especially when Stark activated the resonance ability associated with the luminar crystal weapon.

Each time the Amaranto opened fire, it always managed to strike the creatures that were ordinarily hiding behind the walls of nearby structures by bending its beams by up to 45 degrees during their passage!

"Good work, Stark. You are saving a lot of lives with your excellent precision."

"The ones responsible for unleashing these beasts must pay." Venerable Stark spoke between gritted teeth.

"I promise you that our Black Cats will get to the bottom of this after this is over."

Commander Casella Ingvar had already noticed that Venerable Stark had grown a lot more volatile since this incident started.

Having learned the guest pilot's history a long time ago, Casella became concerned whether Venerable Stark would be able to maintain control over herself.

The command-oriented expert pilot could not afford to babysit Davia Stark, though. She was already trying to coordinate and keep track of many different developments. Her brain was heating up as she put her multitasking capability to the test.

Though Titania helped put her in a better state to track so many different elements, the burden on Casella and her masterwork expert command mech was not light.

Even as she sought to do the jobs of many officers and analysts at once, she also had to expend her concentration on Commandeering dozens of nearby Larkinson mechs!

"Nullifiers, eliminate the flying warbeasts in sector A5."

"Roger that!"

The elite Nullifier mechs that were exclusive to the Batle Criers flew towards the periphery of the Government Districts and managed to gain line of sight to a quartet of flying creatures that were faster and more resilient than normal!

The biological warping capabilities of the four beasts made it difficult to land any attacks on the nimble and maneuverable monsters. Their transphasic hides were also thick and layered to the point where they could prevent themselves from getting seriously injured as long as they moved quickly enough to prevent concentrated attacks from falling onto the same sections of flesh.

The Nullifier mechs did not care for that. The twelve mechs armed with rare but considerably powerful Godkiller heavy luminar crystal rifles started to take aim at once.

Even though the individual Battle Crier mech pilots were already quite skilled by themselves, they gained an extra boost from allowing Casella Ingvar to Commandeer them and their mechs!

This instantly turned the already powerful rifleman mechs into quasi-expert rifleman mechs!

After the mechs and mech pilots received wisps of Casella's transcendent strength, the Nullifier mechs all adjusted their aim with much better precision and opened fire at the right timing!

Two of the beasts got struck with six resonance-empowered transphasic positron beams at once!

Even though the destructive attacks only carried a meager amount of true resonance compared to the attacks launched by the Amaranto, the positron beams vaporized through the hides of the impudent warbeasts and burned so many holes through their bodies that they died as they fell!

"How did you do that, Larkinsons?!"

It only took a couple more seconds for the Nullifiers to charge another powerful salvo of positron beams that quickly shot down the remaining two flying warbeasts!

"S-So strong!"

"Why aren't these machs for sale!?"

There were two reasons why the Nullifiers managed to cut through the strong exterior defenses of the powerful warbeasts with relative ease.

The first reason was because they received a considerable offensive boost from Commander Casella's resonance ability.

The second reason was because the Nullifier mechs were all armed with transphasic luminar crystal weapons.

Even if those rifles only integrated 5 grams of phasewater each, that granted them just enough transphasic capabilities to neutralize a portion of the transphasic defenses of their targets.

These two factors in isolation might not necessarily allow the Nullifiers to shoot down the resilient warbeasts with ease, but when they were active at the same time, they produced a wonderful synergy that allowed the end results to vastly exceed the sum of their parts!